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Parts of Britain are so blighted by crime they resemble the streets of Baltimore in cult TV show The Wire, the Tories have said.

Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said the UK now suffers from the same culture of gangs and violence found in the US.

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He said police were fighting an “urban war” against urban gangs as violence in society has become “a norm and not an exception”.

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In a speech in Westminster he said: “The Wire used to be just a work of fiction for British viewers. But under this Government, in many parts of British cities, The Wire has become a part of real life in this country too.”

The Wire, which is currently being shown on BBC2, portrays unremittingly the battle between police and gangs on the streets of Baltimore, Maryland, on the east coast of the USA.

It has become a byword for urban deprivation and societal breakdown in modern America.

Mr Grayling said parts of Britain now suffered from the same culture of “deprivation, harm, addiction and failure”.

He said the Government had been responsible for a “decade of failure” that most affected the poorest in society.

“When The Wire comes to Britain’s streets, it is the poor who suffer most,” he said. “It is the poor who are the ones who have borne the brunt of the surge in violence under this Government. It is they who struggle to live their lives against a constant fear of crime.”

Earlier this week Mr Grayling accused ministers of allowing Britain to divide into “two nations”, with the poorest in society suffering most from crime. In this speech he will step up his attack and pledge to “break people free” from the “ghettos” they live in.